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Speakers at Michael Brown’s funeral urge push for change

Request to buy this photoRobert Cohen | St. Louis Post-DispatchLeslie McSpadden Jr., right, holds hands with his father, Leslie Sr., as they join mourners in prayer at the funeral of Michael Brown, their nephew and grandson, respectively. Thousands attended yesterday’s service in St. Louis.

Request to buy this photoRichard Perry | The New York TimesLesley McSpadden weeps during the funeral of Brown, her son. Later at his gravesite, she returned to it after others had left.

Request to buy this photoCharlie Riedel | Associated PressA horse-drawn hearse carries Michael Brown’s casket to his gravesite in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Normandy, Mo. Hundreds of mourners gathered at the gravesite for his burial yesterday.

Your Right to Know

ST. LOUIS — Michael Brown’s relatives said goodbye yesterday to the 18-year-old who was shot and
killed by a police officer, remembering him as a “gentle soul” with a deep and growing faith in
Christianity and ambitions that one day “the world would know his name.”

The calls from the pulpit were for Brown’s memory to live on in a broad movement for justice,
for voter participation and for answers to vexing and unending questions about race and
policing.

“There is a cry being made from the ground, not just for Michael Brown, but for the Trayvon
Martins, for those children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, for the Columbine massacre, for the
black-on-black crime,” the Rev. Charles Ewing, Brown’s uncle, told 2,500 people packed into the
Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church.

The crowd included not only family members but also people Brown had never met: celebrities,
representatives of the White House, members of Congress, civil-rights leaders and hundreds of
residents.

Infused with Scripture and song, the funeral was a mix of intimate reflections and national
policy plans. Relatives reminisced in choked voices about Brown’s wide smile as a picture from his
high school graduation flashed on two wide screens. Leaders urged those gathered to memorialize
Brown’s life by carrying forward a vocal, strong and unified effort to seek change across the
country.

“Michael Brown must be remembered for more than disturbances,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton,
reflecting on the sometimes-violent demonstrations that followed the shooting of the young black
man by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson on Aug. 9.

“He must be remembered for: This is where they started changing what was going on. Oh, yeah,
there have been other times in history that became seminal moments, and this is one of those
moments. And this young man, for whatever reason, has appealed to all of us that we’ve got to solve
this and not continue this.”

Eric Davis, one of Brown’s cousins, urged the crowd to go to the polls and push for change,
saying the community has had “enough of the senseless killings.”

Davis described Brown as a “big guy, but a kind, gentle soul.” He recalled his cousin once
telling the family that someday his name would be known by the wider world.

“He did not know he was offering up a divine prophecy at that time,” Davis said.

An array of well-known figures filled one part of the church, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson;
the film director Spike Lee; T.D. Jakes, the bishop of the Potter’s House, an African-American
megachurch; two children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and other families of young people who
have been killed.

Poster-size photos of Brown, wearing headphones, were on each side of the closed casket, which
had a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap atop it.

Brown was unarmed when he was shot by officer Darren Wilson. A grand jury is considering
evidence in the case, and a federal investigation also is underway.

With the church at capacity, many people waited outside, crowded into shady areas on a hot
day.

Angela Pierre, a machine operator who once lived in Ferguson, said she hopes the funeral helps
turn a page and ease tensions.

Of most importance, though, she said, she hopes it provides healing for Brown’s family.

“I really wanted to just be here today to pray for the family and pray for peace,” said Pierre,
48, who is black. “When all of this dies down, there is still a mother, father and a family who’s
lost someone. Sometimes, a lot of the unrest takes away from that.”

After the service, hundreds of family members, friends and supporters of Brown huddled under and
around a green tent at St. Peter’s Cemetery in nearby Normandy, Mo., as Brown’s coffin was lowered
into a copper-lined concrete vault.

“We shall overcome,” the mourners softly sang at one point.

“We love you, Mike Mike,” someone cried. Others sobbed.

Lesley McSpadden, Brown’s mother, returned to the vault by herself after everyone else had left.
She touched it, then stood over the inscription: “Michael OD Brown; 1996-2014.”